The present invention relates to a liquid ejection head cartridge for effecting recording of a recording material by ejection of liquid, a recording device to which the cartridge is loaded, more particularly to a liquid container for containing recording liquid, a liquid ejecting cartridge a negative pressure producing member accommodating container for accommodating a negative pressure producing member and in recording head portion for ejecting the liquid and a container holder for supporting them separably, and a recording device using the cartridge.
In order to supply liquid to outside with a negative pressure in the field of the ink jet recording apparatus, an ink container which can supply the liquid to an ink ejection head with a negative pressure has been proposed, and the container is integrated with a recording head (head cartridge). The head cartridge is classified into a type in which the recording head and the ink container (ink accommodating portion) are always integral and a type in which the recording means and the ink accommodating portion are separable, and either of which can be separated from the recording device and which are integral in use.
In a field of a liquid supplying system for supplying the ink to the recording head for ejecting the ink for effecting recording, an ink container capable of providing a negative pressure has been proposed and can be integrated with the recording head (ink jet head cartridge), and this system has been put into practice. The types of the ink jet head cartridge are classified into a type wherein the recording head and the ink container (ink accommodating portion) are normally integral, and a type wherein the recording head and the ink accommodating portion are separation members, and each of them is removable from the recording device, although they are integral in use.
As an easiest method of providing the negative pressure in such a liquid supply system, is to utilize capillary force produced by porous material or fiber members. The ink container used in such a method, the structure includes a porous material or a fiber member such as in compressed sponge accommodated in the entirety of the inside of the ink container and an air vent capable of introducing air into the ink accommodating portion to make the ink supply smooth during recording operation.
However, the system using the porous material or fiber member as an ink holding member, involves a problem that ink accommodation efficiency per unit volume is low. In order to provide a solution to the problem, EP0580433 which has been assigned to the assignee of the present application has proposed an ink container comprising a negative pressure producing member accommodating chamber in fluid communication with the ambience and an ink accommodating chamber which is substantially hermetically sealed, wherein said negative pressure producing member accommodating chamber and said ink accommodating chamber are made integral, and are in fluid communication with each other only through a communicating portion (dual-chamber type).
EP0581531 proposes a structure in which a container constituting the ink accommodating chamber is detachably mountable relative to the container constituting the negative pressure producing member accommodating chamber.
With such a dual-chamber type ink container, the ink supply to the negative pressure producing member accommodating chamber from the ink accommodating chamber is effected with a gas-liquid exchanging operation in which the gas is introduced and accommodated in the ink accommodating chamber together with the ink supply from the ink accommodating chamber into negative pressure producing member accommodating chamber, so that ink can be supplied under a substantially constant negative pressure during the gas-liquid exchanging operation.
The ink container of this type is satisfactory at present, but an improvement is desired.
In view of the fact that service lives of the negative pressure producing member accommodating container and the liquid reservoir are different, it is desirable that they can be used correspondingly to the service lives. In order to accomplish this, different parts are desirably, connected with a method which is easy to disconnect, so that respective parts can be recycled or roused. Particularly, in the type wherein only the liquid reservoir is exchangeable, if a wrong liquid reservoir containing wrong ink is connected, there is a liability that negative pressure producing member accommodating container becomes unusable. Therefore, it is desirable that using method corresponds to the service life. Additionally, when the amounts or kinds of the ink are different for cartridges corresponding to the liquid ejection type recording devices (for example, yellow, magenta, cyan and black inks are used in a machine, and light cyan, light magenta are used in addition to the four color inks in another machine), it is desirable to reduce the manufacturing cost by improving the yield or by decrease of the managing items and to permit recycling and reuse of the recording head portions, containers and holders, respectively.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejection head cartridge and recording device wherein the liquid ejection head cartridge having a negative pressure producing member accommodating container and a liquid reservoir adjacent thereto meets the necessity for keeping the environmental health.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a liquid ejection head cartridge comprising: a head portion for ejecting liquid; a liquid supply portion for supplying the liquid to the recording head portion; an air vent for fluid communication with ambience and a negative pressure producing member accommodating container accommodating a negative pressure producing member capable of retaining liquid therein; a liquid reservoir having a liquid reservoir portion for containing liquid and constituting a substantially sealed space except for a communication portion with the negative pressure producing member accommodating container; a container holder for holding the liquid reservoir and the negative pressure producing member accommodating container which are in fluid communication with each other through the communicating portion and having a liquid supply path to the recording head from a liquid supply portion of the negative pressure producing member accommodating container: wherein the recording head portion, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container and the liquid reservoir are independently separable from the container holder. With this structure, the recording head portion, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container and the liquid reservoir are independently separable relative to the container holder, and therefore, only the one or ones which require exchange.
Here, an order of easinesses of separation of the recording head portion, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container and the liquid reservoir may be equal to an order of shortnesses of lives of the recording head portion, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container and the liquid reservoir, and such one of them as has a shortest life may be most easily separable The liquid reservoir may be most easily separable from the container holder. An easiness of separation of the negative pressure producing member accommodating container may be next to an easiness of the liquid reservoir. With this structure, the liquid reservoir which is most frequently exchanged can be easily exchanged, and the negative pressure producing member accommodating container which is frequently exchanged, next to the liquid reservoir, can be easily exchanged.
Here, the recording head portion may be capable of ejecting different color liquids. The negative pressure producing member accommodating containers for the different color liquids may be independently separable from the container holder. Here, the liquid reservoir may be provided with a plurality of such the communicating portions, and communicating portions may be in fluid communication with negative pressure producing member accommodating containers, respectively. With these structures, when a plurality of communicating portions of one liquid reservoir are connected to two negative pressure producing member accommodating container, respectively, for example, the flow rate of the liquid supply may suddenly be high, with the result that level of the liquid interface in one of the two negative pressure producing members lowers remarkably. Even if this occurs, if the liquid is not supplied out, the negative pressures of the two negative pressure producing member accommodating containers and the liquid reservoir are balanced so that stable state is reached, and therefore, the levels of the liquid interfaces in the negative pressure producing member accommodating containers are reset, thus stably supplying the liquid to the recording head portion.
The liquid supply path may be fixed to an upper surface of the container holder substantially in a vertical direction at a top side of the container holder, and the negative pressure producing member accommodating container having a liquid supply portion at a bottom bottom side may be fixed, by at least one fixed portion at the bottom side in a region outside a region where the liquid supply portion is provided, and the liquid reservoir may be separably fixed to the top side of the container holder, and wherein the recording head portion may be separably fixed to the modern side of the container holder. Here, the fixed portions may be arranged on a line substantially parallel with a direction of fluid communication between the liquid reservoir and the negative pressure producing member accommodating container at positions substantially symmetrical relative to a center of the liquid supply portion. With this structure, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container can be stably fixed even if the negative pressure producing member accommodating container may receive moment about an axis substantially perpendicular to the direction of fluid communication and passing through the center of the liquid supply portion, upon the liquid reservoir may be brought into fluid communication with the negative pressure producing member accommodating container. Here, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container may be provided at one vertical side thereof with an engaging portion for engagement with a locking portion provided in the container holder and may be further provided with an elastic latch lever extending upwardly, an another having for engagement with another engagement portion provided in the container holder at another vertical side. The liquid supply path may be engaged with an upper surface of the container holder substantially in a vertical direction at a top side of the container holder, and the negative pressure producing member accommodating container having a liquid supply portion at a bottom bottom side may be engaged, by engaging portion, and the liquid reservoir may be separably fixed to the top side of the container holder, and wherein the recording head portion may be separablely fixed to the modern side of the container holder. With these structures, only by manipulating the latch lever which extends upwardly, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container can be separated, and therefore, even if the recording head is fixed to the container holder, the negative pressure producing member accommodating container can be separated from the container holder.
Here, the liquid reservoir portion may produce a negative pressure with discharge of the liquid. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus comprising a liquid ejection head cartridge as stated above, a carriage for detachably carrying the liquid ejection head cartridge and for reciprocating the liquid ejection head cartridge along surface of the recording material.
Here, a connecting portion for separably fixing the recording head and the container holder is covered by the carriage when the liquid ejection head cartridge is carried on the carriage.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.